| prehistoric
| Someone beats on a hollow tree trunk.
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| 1450
| Gutenberg printing press invented.
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| Late 18th
| Claude Chappe (France) organizes optical telegraph system.
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| 1839
| Wheatstone (England) develops first electrical operating telegraph line.
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| 1844
| Samuel Morse sends first U.S. public telegraph message.
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| 1845
| Samuel Morse (United States) develops practical information encoding method (Morse code) especially useful for telegraphic transmission.
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| 1858
| First trans-Atlantic telegraph transmission by cable.
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| 1860
| Pony Express rides the plains from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California.
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| 1875
| Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.
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| 1876
| Telephone patent issued to Bell.
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| 1877
| First telephone in private home.
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| 1881
| First long-distance line, from Boston to Providence, Rhode Island.
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| 1888
| Heinrich Hertz demonstrates radio wave generation.
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| 1891
| Almon B. Strowger patents step-by-step mechanical switch.
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| 1891
| First undersea telephone cable, English Channel (France to England).
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| 1896
| Marconi receives first radio patent.
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| 1901
| First trans-Atlantic transmission and reception of radio waves
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| 1907
| Lee De Forest invents three-element electron (vacuum) tube.
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| 1915
| First United States transcontinental telephone transmission, by land line.
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| 1918
| Bell System begins installing Strowger switches.
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| 1920s
| Radio amateurs demonstrate the usefulness of high frequency radio transmission for long-distance communications.
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| 1928
| Admiral Byrd takes an Art Collins (of Collins Radio fame) HF radio to Antarctica and successfully communicates with the United States.
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| 1929
| Coaxial cable invented.
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| 1944
| First fully automatic calculator invented (MARK I - Harvard University).
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| 1946
| First totally electronic digital computer invented (ENIAC - University of Pennsylvania)
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| 1947
| William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain discover the point contact transistor (Bell Laboratories).
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| 1949
| First electronic computer with an internal stored program (EDSAC - Cambridge, England).
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| 1951
| Direct, long-distance dialing in U.S. initiated.
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| 1951
| First commercially delivered electronic digital computer delivered (UNIVAC - delivered to U.S. Bureau of the Census)
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| 1956
| First trans-Atlantic telephone cable system is operational.
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| 1959
| Patent for integrated circuit filed by J.S. Kilby
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| 1960
| First electronic switch is tested.
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| 1963
| First telephone conversation by geosynchronous orbit satellite transmission.
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| 1963
| Touch-tone service is introduced.
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| 1965
| First collect call service.
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| 1969
| First light wave transmission.
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| 1970
| Laser diode invented.
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| 1970
| Packet switching introduced.
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| 1971
| Intel introduces the first 4-bit microprocessor (Intel 4004).
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| 1972
| Intel introduces the first 8-bit microprocessor (Intel 8008)
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| 1973
| Intel introduces the 8080 chip.
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| 1975
| MITS introduces the Altair personal computer kit in January issue of Popular Electronics. Considered to be the first personal computer.
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| 1975
| IBM introduces its first personal computer (Model 5100).
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| 1976
| Apple Computer introduces the Apple I.
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| 1976
| First digital electronic switch installed.
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| 1977
| Apple Computer introduces the Apple II.
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| 1977
| First fiber optic system installed.
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| 1981
| On Wednesday, August 12, 1981, IBM debuted the IBM Personal Computer.
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| 1984
| Divestiture of AT&T into AT&T (long distance, aka Ma Bell) and seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs or Baby Bells)
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| 1988
| Frame Relay proposed by the ITU-T (Recommendation I.122).
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| 1988
| First trans-Atlantic optical fiber cable.
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| 1988
| ATM introduced.
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| 1990
| 2,000 km fiber optic link demonstration without using repeaters.
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| 1991
| ADSL introduced.
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